Are you a fan of Google's quick-release schedule for its Chrome web browser? Well, if you are, the latest piece of news concerning Mozilla and its FireFox web browser will probably appeal to you as well. Apparently, in less than a month after Firefox 5 has been launched, the browser vendor has already made the move to "promote" version six of its web browser to the Beta channel. And based on what we are seeing from the release schedules, it does not seem to be long before Firefox 7 and Firefox 8 will be finally upon us.

Read on to find out more.

Are you game to test out a web browser that has just recently been moved up from "Alpha" to "Beta" status? Well, if your answer to that question is a resounding "Yes", Mozilla will probably be glad to have a tester like you, for the browser vendor has in a recent announced revealed that the next version of its Firefox web browser, Firefox 6, is now available for public download via the Beta channel, where it will stay for the next 36 days until it gets bumped up to the Release channel on August 16.

According to the release notes that have been published for the Beta version of Firefox 6, the new browser is expected to provide users with more control over their privacy, and it comes in the form of what Mozilla dubs the new Data Management Window. Apparently, a report posted by The H claims that keying the string "about:permissions" into the address bar of Firefox 6 will bring up a list of options to fine tune the kind of data Firefox will allow online content to access, as shown in our example below:

The H also claims that other user-centric enhancements that managed to make their way into the Beta release of Firefox 6 include a new Plugin Check tool which "automatically verifies the compatibility of installed plugins" such as Adobe's Flash Player, a trimmed-down startup time and support for version 7 of the WebSocket protocol. More importantly, the Beta release of Firefox 6 is reportedly enhanced with better support for HTML5, DOM level 3 and newer networking technologies, among many other developer-centric improvements that are well documented in Firefox 6's developer pages.

That being said, the fact that Mozilla has moved Firefox 6 up from the Alpha channel to its Beta channel means that something else needs to occupy the vaccant spot left behind by it in the Alpha channel. And this honour falls to what will eventually be known as Firefox 7, which has already been moved to the Aurora channel and is expected to take its place in the Beta channel come August 16, where Firefox 6 will be pushed out for its official release.

Last but definitely not least, those who prefer to live on the bleeding edge of technology can also check out Mozilla's Nightly channel, which is where channel Firefox 8 currently resides in.

Of course, since we are talking about pre-release software, the same warnings about Mozilla's browsers potentially borking up your system badly is a possibility, so make sure you got your backups done and more importantly, resist the urge to load these browsers on production machines unless you want to give your office's IT department a royal nightmare.